I would guess it's a combination of complacency and poor work ethics, they had it easy for 3 decades. The guys who sent Apollo to the moon have long retired or are dead, and the smart guys are in hedge funds. Those joining the military are drop outs, poor hispanics and newly arrived Filipinos who genetically excel at following orders/being servants/fodder.
Whether it's that woman faking testing data for the submarine steel or Boeing engineers outsourcing the MAX flight software to Indians, it's all part of a downward trajactory of an entitled complacent degenerate generation milking the last drops of what their granddads did, before the house of cards comes down crashing.